Last night mother nature dumped close to an inch of rain over parts of the County, resulting in some minor flooding and downed trees. Fortunately that was the worst of it. Last night there was minor flooding on the Washburn road between Presque Isle and Washburn; enough to close one lane down.

Region Manager of the Northern Maine Department of Transportation Bob Watson said, “We had some pretty severe thunderstorms come through the area last night, we had a lot of wind that caused some downed trees in some areas we had some roads closed at various times for downed trees until we could get around and get them cleaned up.”

In just a one hour span Presque Isle saw close to an inch of rainfall.

Region Manager of the Northern Maine Department of Transportation Bob Watson said, “With that much rain in such a short amount of time, the water just can’t run off fast enough into the the drainage ways so it tends to collect on roadways and driveways and things like that.

Luckily, Watson says the damage caused by the rain was very minor and did very little damage to the road construction projects in Presque Isle.

Region Manager of the Northern Maine Department of Transportation Bob Watson said, “Nothing very severe on the construction projects going on some minor washouts as a result of the rain we had but no major problem.”

Rainfall didn’t cause any significant damage over the open construction sites; but it can pose a serious risk to drivers on the road.

Region Manager of the Northern Maine Department of Transportation Bob Watson said, “We’ve had some accidents lately with people going off the road during rain storms, and I just ask people to remember even though it’s not snow and ice which is what we think about the road being slippery, when we get these down pours and heavy rains the roads can still be quite slippery.”

He suggested drivers take caution, slow down, and avoid driving in flooded areas. He says that beaver dams around roadways and culverts have also been contributing to flooding, and making drainage efforts less effective.